Author: slearch

  • PS Goblins Yu: GP Philadelphia Report

    For a month or two, I had been playtesting Goblins extensively (for the PTQ season, obviously).

    After 0-2ing the Richmond PTQ, and winning the GPT that started after round 2 (lol 0-2 drop!),
    I come up with a pretty optimal list of Goblins after talking to Brad Taulbee (who managed to make
    it to two PTQ finals, losing to Aggro Loam both times).

    Of course, what would any good Magic article be without a decklist?

    The Sparksmith got added in to beat Tarmogoyfs/Myr Enforcers/Dorans, etc. I felt having 4 Goblin Matron
    was too slow many a time, especially with the number of Cabal Therapies running around (see Dredge/Doran).

    Before the tournament arrives, about a week in advance, I ship Tristal a Domain Zoo list, which he proceeds
    to smash face with! {e}

    Round 1-3: Byes,

    walking around the venue, meeting up with various Maryland players, and Tristal and RobRoy.

    Round 4: Christopher R. Schaut.

    I recognize this guy from the last Rockville PTQ, where he played my friend Hans Mahler in an Ideal mirror, so I auto-put him on Ideal.

    Game 1: He wins the die roll, and casts a turn 2 Form of the Dragon off a sacland and double Seething Song. I proceed to sharpshooter him for 5 damage on turn 4 (while being at 5!)

    Sideboarding: -4 Gempalm, -1 Ringleader, -1 Sparksmith, +3 Therapy, +3 grip

    Game 2: He keeps a weird hand (i think, 3 sacland, wish, 2*prism, star). I therapy him for Sensei Top, because his first play is a sacland, and I don’t really want him recovering from my Therapies. On my turn 2, I lay a Mogg War Marshal, flashback therapy to hit both his prisms, in the meantime, he has drawn another burning wish. The next turn, I Earwig Squad him for 2 confinements and a form, and note that he doesn’t play top, instead playing insidious dreams/draco/explosion.


    However, the game ends pretty quickly after that since he is taking 6 per turn.

    Round 5: Robert E. Moore.

    He is playing some sort of dumb Leaf-Crowned Elder deck (apparently he only had 1 bye, so he managed to win 3 rounds in a row!).

    Game 1: He triggers Elder about 6 times, getting Eternal Witness, Doran, Troll Ascetic, but multiple ringleaders just bash him in combo with a pyromancer.

    Sideboarding: +3 grip, -3 Fanatic

    Game 2: The same thing happens, but he Engineered Plagues for goblin, but I have a goblin king in play, so he still dies to pyromancer.

    Round 6: Christian Calcano.

    He is playing Doran with maindeck Jitte ;_;

    Game 1: It is a fairly tense game that goes back and forth. I Gempalm two early goyfs, and have a bunch of 1/1s in play, but he eventually gets Doran/Shizo/Jitte, and I lose.

    Sideboarding: +3 therapy, -1 Matron, -2 piledriver

    Game 2: I keep his Jitte in check with Skirk Prospector, so he bites it to a lot of 1/1 tokens.

    Game 3: He gets turn 2 doran, turn 3 vindicate, turn 4 witness ;_;

    I was pretty pissed after this match, because I don’t think he could have won game 1 without drawing his singleton Shizo.

    Round 7: BENJI ASHMAN (AKA FAKEHAT!)

    Game 1: Fakehat obvobvobv draws it afgain, and combos me on turn 4.

    Sideboarding: +3 therapy, +2 Grip, -4 gempalm, -1 sparksmith

    Game 2: I threaten lethal on my turn 4, so he has to wish on turn 3 for pyroclasm, then later fizzles on a desire for 6.

    Game 3: He mulligans to 5 and puts up no fight.

    Round 8: Jason Imperiale

    Dredge idiot, and I know this from reading mtg.com :-p He is also kind of a douche.

    Game 1: I obvobvobv lose because he has early darkblast and dredging.

    Sideboarding: +4 Extirpate, +3 Earwig, -2 Piledriver, -1 Matron, -2 Ringleader, -1 Pyromancer, -1 Tin Street


    Game 2: He mulls to 5, and I just roll him on turn 4 with the 2 piledrivers I left in.

    Game 3: He keeps a 7 card hand, but does nothing for the first few turns. I correctly put him on darkblast, when all he does is fetch up 2 watery graves. I finally play into his darkblast so I can extirpate it, and earwig him for 3 narcs, then 2 dread return and an ichorid.


    He starts bitching and whining about how lucky and terrible I am to not do anything early and he eventually decks when he can’t make it past my fanatics.

    Round 9: Nicolas J. Cuenca

    Goblins mirror!

    Game 1: He gets stuck on 3 mana, whereas I don’t miss land drops and resolve several ringleaders which end the game in short order.

    Game 2: He gets stuck on 3 mana again, but my hand is kind of slow, so I start cabal therapying him to try to stay alive, and eventually draw my one goblin king to lethal him with my mogg tokens.

    End of day 1.

    I am pretty excited because I am 8-1, so I am in relatively good shape to at least money, if not top 8.

    Round 10: Zack Hall

    U/W tron. I put this guy on a tron strategy, since he obviously did well in Vancouver with it.

    Game 1: He wins the die roll, and leads with a power plant, and chrome mox imprinting condescend. I play a fanatic into his represented counterspell, and sure enough it gets remanded.

    He trons up on turn 3, so I get slavered on turn 4, and he gets the lock on turn 5 by a transmuted tolaria west.

    Sideboarding: -4 Mogg Fanatic, -1 Sparksmith, -2 Gempalm, +3 Cabal Therapy, +3 Krosan Grip (I leave in 2 gempalms, for triskelion so I can attack past it).

    Game 2: He mulligans to 5, and my draw involves: turn 1, land mox, imprint gempalm, piledriver, turn 2, warchief, turn 3 ringleader. That doesn’t last long, even though he plays a sphere of law on turn 3 from a turn 3 signet.

    Game 3: He keeps a slow hand, and I get early pressure. He eventually taps low to oblivion ring a piledriver, so I sneak out a warchief. The next turn, he lays a sphere of law, then I untap and pyromancer him for exactly enough through the sphere.

    Round 11: Joshua Schneier

    Blue Counterbalance variant with Engineered Plagues.

    Game 1: I win the dieroll, lay turn 1 prospector, turn 2 sparksmith. He reads the card carefully and slumps back in his chair as he starts laying tarmogoyfs only to see them sparksmithed to death. Not close at all.

    Sideboarding: -4 Mogg Fanatic, -1 Pyromancer, +3 Krosan Grip, +2 Dralnu’s Crusade

    Game 2: He force spikes my prospector, counterspells my piledriver, then lays a plague. I die to tarmogoyfs shortly after.

    Game 3: My hand is ok, I resolve a piledrive ron turn 2, then start laying some small guys like moggs, and he draws 7 fetchlands in a row and dies.

    At this point, I’m extremely psyched, since I only need to 2-1 the next 3 rounds to top 8.

    Round 12: Matt Hansen.

    Cymbro #2, obvobvobv.

    Game 1: I draw a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn of lands, like 6 after I keep an opener of 3 lands, mogg fanatic, prospector, piledriver.

    Sideboarding: -1 Tin Street Hooligan, -2 SKirk Prospector, +3 Krosan Grip

    Game 2: I get an early sparksmith, which contains his guys long enough for me to piledriver him to death.

    Game 3: I commit the WORST blunder ever, which probably costs me the game. My board is, goblin king, sparksmith, prospector, piledriver, his board is only a chameleon colossus, and he is tapped out.

    All I need to do is sparksmith his colossus (since it would take 5 damage since it counts all goblins in play). Instead, I convince myself that I need to sparksmith it and fanatic it. So I lose a fanatic for no reason
    which would have been instrumental in keeping his 2nd phantom centaur under control so it would not get cloaked*2.

    Instead I lose to that centaur, and Hansen goes on to top 8.

    Round 13: Michael Mushaty.

    Counterbalance idiot #2

    Game 1: I get a fast draw, and roll him, while he does dumb stuff like repeal my chrome mox 3 times.

    Sideboarding: –

    Game 2: He plays an early goyf, then a forge-tender, then another goyf. I can’t really do anything through his forge-tenders and goyfs, because gempalm incinerator is basically dead.

    Game 3: I draw all of my chrome moxen, after keeping a hand with land, land, mox, piledriver, warchief, prospector. He then repeals my mox on his turn 1. After which, he proceeds to go goyf, forge-tender, shackles. At some point, he shackles my mogg war marshal, and chooses to untap his shackles and STEAL THE SAME MOGG WAR MARSHAL AGAIN.

    Round 14: Dean C. Bilz

    TEPS guy #2.

    Game 1: Comboed on turn 4, when he was gonna die on my turn 4, but he won the die roll ;[

    Game 2: I am pretty sure that I can’t dodge the bullet again and win this matchup, but in game 2, I decide to matron for a ringleader, whereas if I matron for a mogg fanatic, he just dies.

    Round 15: Daniel OMahoney-Schwartz

    I recognize his name, since he is one of the 3 people part of Team Antarctica, so I know he is probably pretty good.
    He is playing Domain Zoo.

    Game 1: I clog the board with 3 mogg war marshals, then ghost quarter his temple garden, which strands his hand full of lightning helixes and vindicates, and shrinks his kird ape to a 1/1.

    Game 2: He gets turn 1 ape, turn 2 goyf, turn 3 jitte/tarfire a guy of mine. I lose this one pretty handily.

    Game 3: I get turn 1 prospector, turn 2 mogg war marshal which keeps his jitte in check while I build up a critical mass of goblins to goblin king him to death.

    All-in all, it’s a pretty good tournament for me, and playtesting paid off in spades, giving me 2 pro points, and 400 dollars.

    If I had won one more match, I would have qualified for hollywood, but this is not too bad of a performance for my 3rd GP ever.



    Looking at the pre-rotation decklist, we can see that a few cards are lost for the next season of extended.

    In particular, Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader disappear from the maindeck, as well as Dralnu’s Crusade and Cabal Therapy from the sideboard.

    Looking from Onslaught/MDF type 2 for goblins, we can either run clickslither, or siege-gang commander.

    In particular, I would restructure the deck in the following way:

    My gut-feeling is that post rotation, Affinity and Tron will be HUGE. You need sprees vs affinity and maindeck sparksmith as a 4-of helps a lot vs them. Grip is an uncounterable way of killing their titans or platinums. Clickslither is a hasty trampling threat that is hard to deal with.

  • Shadowmoor Preview Month Contest


    The Aurora has plunged Lorwyn into eternal night, transforming the once-idyllic plane into the eerie world of Shadowmoor. The gloom has transformed its denizens, too — creatures of fable have become monsters from dark fairytales. Races and characters introduced in Lorwyn are back, but with twisted allegiances and new powers.

    Shut up! We’ve got no time for such nonsense, “Wizards of the Coast”. That’s because this is Shadowmoor Preview Month, and it would be inappropriate for us here at Good Gamery to let such a thing pass by without acknowledging it with an AMAZING HUMOROUS CONTENT SUBMISSION CONTEST.

    I literally hear you asking, “How will this contest work?” Every piece of Officially Acknowledged Content you create during April counts toward your standing in the contest, as long as one of those pieces of content is a Shadowmoor-related humor article. When April ends, everyone will vote for which person deserves to win the contest based on the quantity and/or quality of his or her submissions over the course of the month. One fantastic article could win it. A dozen “pretty funny” items could win it. Even non-funny content, like tournament reports and strategy articles, can contribute to your victory. It’s up to the plebes!

    The person who wins first place in the vote wins an entire box of Shadowmoor booster packs. Second place wins 18 Shadowmoor booster packs. Third place wins 9 Shadowmoor booster packs. Fourth place wins 3 Shadowmoor booster packs. These prizes have been donated by the MT2 New Contest Crew — thanks guys!

    So what are you waiting for? Your mommy to nag you? Shut up! We’ve got no time for such nonsense. Get that content created, because gobs of free Magic cards are at stake, jabroni!

    (“How do I submit articles?”)

  • Leaked Info About Next Smash Bros. Game

    Though Super Smash Bros. Brawl was just released two weeks ago, Good Gamery has discovered that Nintendo is already hard at work on the sequel: “Super Smash Bros. Altercation.” Today we’ll be looking at a few of the new characters that have been leaked.




    Peppy

    Peppy features the fastest wheelchair based attacks in the game. His final smash is “summon orderly.”




    The Black M.C. Kid

    Named Mac, the black M.C. Kid loves McDonald’s and sports the hairdo popularized by Kid from Kid & Play. His final smash involves touching a crescent moon block, which turns his skin white.




    Krystal

    Krystal is rather similar to Wolf, Falco, and Fox. Her final smash is the landmaster furry stampede which calls forth dozens of creepy nerds lacking in hygiene and social aptitude that will destroy everything in their wake.




    Every Single Pokemon

    “Due to popular demand, we’ve gotta include ’em all!” says Nintendo. Unlock them with only 10,000 hours of gameplay, far less than it would take to catch your own.




    Giygas

    This “Earthbound” character is a bit tricky to play due to the form of his attacks being incomprehensible.




    Cloud

    While it’s true that Final Fantasy 7 has never appeared on any Nintendo platform, Nintendo reminds us that they have worked with Square, and “that should suffice.” Cloud’s limit break final smash is the emoslash.




    Fighter

    Another inclusion from the Final Fantasy universe, Fighter can barely move, but merely stepping forward allows him to attack any character no matter how distant.



    The Entire Cast of DragonBall Z

    What do Nintendo and DragonBall have in common? “Nothing, but we included these guys anyway,” our source explained. Few details are known at this point, but DragonBall characters are most notable for the fact that their attack power increases the longer they yell.

  • Transguild Courier

    Shadowmoor Preview!

    by Mark Rosewater

    Hello and welcome to Shadowmoor preview week! As you may have seen by our teaser Shadowmoor booster, this time around we’re doing some pretty cool things with hybrid mana – pretty cool things in a pretty cool/big way. But as you will see with today’s preview card, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

    As I’ve pointed out in my past articles, I’m all about elegance. Elegance and simplicity. Nothing sends me into a fit of small man rage harder than a card with a line of text that doesn’t need to be there. With that in mind, we have reworked an old favorite and made it much simpler with our friend hybrid mana. Take a look:

    Transguild Courier! Yes, one of the best “build around me and lose” cards from Dissension is back for another go-around in Shadowmoor. Players have always found colorless mana symbols confusing, so introducing the symbol was a no-brainer that also took away the Courier’s only line of text. Simplicity!

    I know the question on your mind: will the Courier’s partner in crime Might of the Nephilim be coming back? Are you an idiot?

    Until the next time, may you never run out of ideas.

  • -[ARENA 03]- Pipe Dream

    Rules: Press start until you get into the game and try to get the best score.

    Post ur shots!

    This is an ADEPT arena, which means the winner gets a trophy and participants get a badge.

    And remember: uses java, firefox beware!